Image Credit: Jonathan Leibson/WireImage
The head of the Motion Picture Association of America has released the organization’s first public statement addressing last Friday’s deadly Newtown, Conn. school shooting and its lasting aftermath.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman and CEO of the MPAA, not only mourned those lost, but mentioned his own personal connection to Connecticut, and that those in the film industry “stand ready to be part of the national conversation.”
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Conservatives often complain that Hollywood is in the bag for the Democrats, but when it comes to internet freedom, the motion-picture industry likes what the Republican Party has to say. Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (and former Democratic senator from Connecticut), officially embraced the Republican Party’s campaign platform on intellectual property and internet freedom:
“The Republican Party platform language strikes a very smart balance: it emphasizes the importance of us doing more as a nation to protect our intellectual property from online theft while underscoring the critical importance of protecting internet freedom. As the party points out, the internet has been for its entire existence a source of innovation, and it is intellectual property that helps drive that innovation. Copyright is the cornerstone of innovation; it allows creators to benefit from what they create. As Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor — herself once a Republican elected official — wrote, ‘[I]t should not be forgotten that the Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of free expression. By establishing a marketable right to the use of one’s expression, copyright supplies the economic incentive to create and disseminate ideas.’ READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Skip Bolen
EW has confirmed that embattled indie Killer Joe has set a release date, as Deadline first reported. Matthew McConaughey’s trailer-park noir found itself in an appeals imbroglio this March when the MPAA slapped an NC-17 rating on it for scenes involving drug use, nudity, violence, and graphic sexuality, to name a few. Despite losing that fight, Joe will hit theaters unchanged on July 27. Watch the trailer below. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Ron Phillips
The MPAA has come under some flack of late for its one-size-fits-all rating system and vague-at-best explanations for those ratings. But there’s a fun flip-side to the murkiness: Speculating on what those ratings and their explanations might infer about the movie in question — in this case, The Dark Knight Rises.
The MPAA handed a PG-13 rating today to The Dark Knight Rises, for “intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language.” The rating itself does not mean the movie is totally done — films often screen well before the director is finished with technical elements like visual effects, sound design, and color timing. But it does provide us with a tantalizing indication for what may be in store with a wildly anticipated film that has otherwise put a high premium on plot details. Namely: Language? Sensuality? Intriguing! READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Michael Dwyer/The Weinstein Company
After yesterday’s surprising announcement that the MPAA granted a PG-13 rating to a re-edited cut of The Weinstein Company’s Bully, the Parents Television Council is calling out the film ratings organization for its “special treatment” of the teen bullying doc.
“When it comes to the MPAA’s content rating system, what was, at one point, a standard has devolved into a double-standard and now into no standard,” said PTC President Tim Winter in a press release. “Moving the yardstick from one ‘f-bomb’ to three essentially removes the yardstick altogether.”
Winter is referring to the newly edited version of the documentary, which managed to earn its desired PG-13 rating after cutting three of the film’s six F-words (while keeping intact a key scene, involving a teenager being harangued on a school bus, which featured the other three uses of the word).
At the core of the PTC’s argument is an accusation against TWC that the insistence on a lowered rating was purely for profits, rather than a genuine desire to help children. The PTC split its disdain equally between Weinstein and the MPAA, criticizing the former for not waiving admission for children, and calling for the latter to reform its content rating system “so it reflects the sense of the nation and not just the sense of Hollywood powerbrokers.”
The interesting note here is that the PTC had previously warned that releasing the film as an unrated feature, as was initially TWC’s plan, would threaten to undermine the entire MPAA system. Now that Bully will in fact be released with an MPAA rating, the Council is still unhappy and has shifted its protest towards urging the organization “to allow greater input from the public rather than just Hollywood insiders.” It appears as if the Council would only have been happy with an R rating for the film, or no release at all.
Read more:
MPAA grants slightly re-edited ‘Bully’ a PG-13 rating; director Lee Hirsch calls it an ‘historic decision’
‘Bully’ producer responds to allegations that the doc ignored key information — EXCLUSIVE
‘Bully’ will make adults squirm and many others cry — including the 11-year-old who Justin Bieber sent
Image Credit: Michael Dwyer/The Weinstein Company
In a surprising turn of events, the Weinstein Company announced Thursday that a re-edited version of Bully has been granted a PG-13 rating by the MPAA.
The edits consisted of removing three of the movie’s six F-words. These edits do not involve a key scene in which teenager Alex Libby was verbally harassed on a school bus — that scene, which was at the center of the MPAA rating controversy, has been left fully intact and unedited. Instead, the cuts came from other moments, including one use of “motherf—er” toward the beginning of the film, director Lee Hirsch told EW. The remaining two F-words cut were heard in the background of other scenes. READ FULL STORY »
Where the Harry Potter series started off in a brightly lit world of wonder and whimsy before descending into a world of warfare and washed-out color, The Hunger Games starts off gritty and violent and goes from there. As written, Suzanne Collins’ two sequels — Mockingjay in particular, with its many scenes of all-out combat — don’t shy away from building upon the brutality established in the first book.
Understandably, many fans are wondering whether this could mean that the inevitable movie adaptations might garner an R rating from the MPAA. But according to producer Nina Jacobson, it’s pretty much out of the question that any subsequent films would receive anything harsher than the PG-13 given to The Hunger Games. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Michael Dwyer/The Weinstein Company
Carmike Cinemas, the country’s fourth-largest movie theater chain, will release the contentious documentary Bully as an R-rated film, as it was initially designated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
A rep for Carmike Cinemas told EW: “It’s just like any other movie content that’s out there being distributed. It was originally rated an R picture. We certainly respect the MPAA and all that they do and how they evaluate and review pictures, and that’s the rating that it received, and that’s how we’ll handle it. It was rated R and that’s how we’ll present it in theaters.” The decision means minors will need to be with a parent or guardian to see the film. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: The Weinstein Company
Regal Cinemas, the largest theater chain in the country, will play the unrated documentary Bully in its theaters, the company announced today. “Regal intends to play the film and respect the original R rating decision of the MPAA,” says Regal spokesperson Dick Westerling. “We will treat the film like it was rated R.” The decision means children 17 and under must be accompanied by a parent or guardian to see the film. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Lee Hirsch
Usually, when a film is released without a rating by the MPAA, it’s because it contains so much mature content — usually sexual in nature — that it was going to get an NC-17. In turn, major theater chains have traditionally treated unrated films as if they have an NC-17 rating, and won’t screen the film for any audience.
AMC Theaters, however, is making an exception for the documentary Bully, which the Weinstein Company announced yesterday would be released this Friday unrated after the MPAA refused to lower its R rating for the film. Today, AMC decided it would allow ticket buyers under the age of 17 to see Bully — with permission. “AMC will be presenting Bully…as not rated,” said the theater-chain in a statement. “Guests younger than 17 can see the film if they are accompanied by a parent or adult guardian, or if they present a signed parental permission slip.”
That permission slip will be available on Wednesday at this link on AMC’s website. The film opens at the AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York, and the AMC Century City 15 in Los Angeles on Friday, and expands into other theaters nationwide over the coming weeks. (A rep for the company declined to comment on the Parent’s Television Council’s statement that screening Bully at AMC’s theaters “threatens to derail the entire ratings system.”)
Bully will be released with a rating, however — just not from the MPAA. READ FULL STORY »
